Alejandra Palermo Ale is a chemical engineer with a PhD in materials science. Her independent career began as an Assistant Professor in Argentina, before joining Cambridge University under a Royal Society Visiting Fellowship. She has published over 50 scientific papers in the field of heterogeneous catalysis. Her previous roles at the RSC have included managing international work in India and Latin America and the setting up and leading the Pan Africa Chemistry Network. She led the Future of the Chemical Sciences initiative based on scenario planning to guide the development of the RSC long- term strategy. Ale’s RSC I&D work has resulted in several influential data led, strategic policy reports aimed at driving change towards an inclusive chemistry culture - Diversity Landscape in the Chemical Sciences (2018) , Breaking the Barriers (2018), LGBT+ climate for the physical sciences (2019), Is publishing in the chemical sciences gender biased? (2019) , A framework for action in scientific publishing (2020) , Minimum standards for inclusion and diversity for scholarly publishing (2021) , Missing Elements: Racial and ethnic inequalities in the chemical sciences (2022), Many of the reports have had a global reach and her work has been recognized by two awards for the RSC from the Public Relations and Communications Associations in 2019 and 2020. As part of RSC’s commitment to improve I&D, Ale worked to launch the RSC Bullying and Harassment support line and grant schemes which focus on career development for individual chemists with caring responsibilities, and for disabled chemists. Additionally, she launched the LGBT+Toolkit and works with partners to support c hemistry students and graduates from minoritised racial and ethnic backgrounds to pursue careers in chemistry - Broadening Horizons, and a national mentoring programme for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic students in year 12 - Windsor Fellowship Her most recent work focuses on Socio Economic Inclusion and the launch of a grant scheme to fund research looking at attrition and retention of LGBT+ people within STEM in the UK and the USA in conjunction with BEIS, as well as work to promote inclusive communication. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a life fellow of the Chemical Research Society of India, a member of IUPAC and an honorary Fellow of the Chemical Society of Ethiopia.
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